Williamson still active in HSU affairs

The besieged president of the Health Services Union,
Michael Williamson,
is supporting a group of union officials and employees to run in future internal elections, according to internal emails.

Mr Williamson has stood aside as secretary of the HSU’s East branch and president of the national branch. A recent email from the acting general secretary,
Peter Mylan
, refers to himself as being part of Mr Williamson’s team.

The question of what happens in future union elections is important because the federal and NSW governments and other HSU branches are seeking to replace HSU East’s elected officials with an administrator who would have wide powers over the union’s finances.

The union is an important player in the Labor Party’s factions. There are about four groups jostling for control of the union.

If an administrator is appointed, they will institute administrative changes before calling fresh elections. The emails indicate Mr Williamson’s supporters within the union are seeking to win back control of the HSU East branch, which covers NSW and Victoria. The union represents blue collar workers in the healthcare industry.

In an April 3 email to his supporters in the union, Mr Williamson said the investigation by Fair Work Australia mostly related to civil allegations and that no allegations of criminal activity related to him.

He urged his supporters to pass that message on to rank-and-file members through “sub branch committees and sub branch meetings and any other networks you have".

An email on Saturday May 5 from HSU East lead organiser Adam Hall referred to a meeting of union officials the day before which it said discussed Mr Williamson’s “current situation".

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Mr Hall said in the email that a clear majority of the officers attending the meeting had decided that Mr Williamson could not return to the position of general secretary, although he conceded that not all officers attended the meeting.

Within hours, Mr Williamson sent a blistering email in response to Mr Hall, which was followed by emails from other officials.

“You gutless person, you didn’t even have the balls to include me in the email," Mr Williamson said in the email. “You had no problems me getting you elected unopposed for the past 3 elections and when it gets hot you can’t handle it. If you worked as hard as you complained you may be a good organiser."

The HSU acting secretary, Mr Mylan, and two other officials questioned Mr Hall’s assertions about what happened at the meeting.

Mr Mylan described Mr Hall as a “devious person" and said the meeting didn’t call for Mr Williamson to be removed from his leadership roles at the union.

An email from an HSU acting team leader, Ken McPherson, referred to a past meeting of union officials where they “all agreed that we part of the team".

Mr Hall replied that rank-and-file members wanted both Mr Williamson and Melbourne-based HSU national secretary
Kathy Jackson
to leave their posts.

Mr Wiliamson told Mr Hall in the email there was “no need to come to any more meetings of the Williamson ticket".

The HSU’s acting national president,
Chris Brown
, said it was important for the appointment of an administrator and the calling of an election to give the branch a fresh start rather than lead to the election of the “same old groups".

Mr Brown said Mr Williamson and Ms Jackson might not personally stand on future election tickets but they were in touch with rival camps within the union.

The HSU East branch declined to comment on the email. Mr McPherson, the HSU official, referred inquiries to union media advisers.

A Fair Work Australia report published this week found that Mr Williamson committed five breaches of the law covering trade unions. The breaches weren’t criminal in nature, it said. Mr Williamson has denied doing anything wrong.

The author of the Fair Work report, Terry Nassios, wrote that Mr Williamson “saw no role for himself" in the dealings of the HSU national branch and “therefore failed in ensuring the rules were rigidly adhered to".

This was despite Mr Williamson being paid “between a $10,000 and $20,000 per annum" honorarium for some years from the HSU.

When asked to explain the payment, Mr Williamson said it reflected work done for the national executive and national council and attending some branch activities.

Mr Williamson’s alleged contraventions included a failure to disclose a $2400 payment made to a charity connected to his wife.

He allegedly failed to ensure the previous national secretary, federal MP
Craig Thomson
, acted properly when creating credit card accounts and issuing cards to staff, and to ensure Mr Thomson was responsible for HSU money spent on credit cards.

Another alleged breach was for employing a woman called Criselee Stevens without national executive approval.